New antioxidant compounds have been identified in foods such as olive oil, honey and nuts
Scientists from the University of Granada have used two new techniques, capillary electrophoresis and high resolution liquid chromatography, to enable them to identify and quantify a great part of the phenolic compounds in such foods. These compounds have a chemopreventive effect in humans and a great influence on the stability of oxidation levels of food.
Scientists at the University of Granada have identified and characterized for the first time different antioxidant compounds from foods such as olive oil, honey, walnuts and a medicinal herb called Teucrium polium. They have used two new techniques, capillary electrophoresis and high resolution liquid chromatography, that have enabled them to identify and quantify a great part of the phenolic compounds contained in these foods.
Functional foods such as olive oil, honey, walnuts and a medicinal herb called Teucrium polium are able to provide different health benefits, so their study and characterization is of great interest. Among the compounds that give such functional characteristics to these foods are phenolic compounds that have generated great interest due to their antioxidant capacity, which endows them with a chemopreventive effect in humans and causes them to have a great influence on the stability of oxidation present in food. Therefore, according to UGR researchers, the "identification and quantification [of these compounds] is a good means for the characterization of foods that contain them."
This work has been performed by Ana María Gómez Caravaca, and directed by Professors Alberto Fernández Gutiérrez and Antonio Segura Carretero, from the Department of Analytical Chemistry at the UGR.
Scientists stress that phenolic compounds have a high antioxidant power and also influence the organoleptic properties of food. Therefore, studies such as the one carried out at the UGR are of great interest because they can determine the amount of these compounds present in foods, and also what compounds are included in every matrix, being able to even determine which one presents a higher activity and its concrete action.
Phenolic Fraction
This research has shown the potential of these techniques for the separation, identification and quantification of the phenolic fraction of vegetable matrices, using appropriate methodologies for this purpose and in the case of olive oil, studying certain technical parameters that affect the phenolic profile.
Information obtained by scientists from the UGR is useful because these compounds have many beneficial health properties. It is widely reported that they have a high antioxidant activity and are able to positively influence the organism by preventing the onset of certain diseases (diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, arterial hypertension, etc.).
The laboratory analyses were performed using the separation techniques of capillary electrophoresis and HPLC coupled to different types of detectors (UV-Vis, MS, NMR). Capillary electrophoresis connected to mass spectrometry proved to be innovative, as it had never before been used for the analysis of the phenolic fraction of honey and walnut. Moreover, these methods allowed identification of some phenolic compounds in these foods for the first time - a point of great interest for its possible antioxidant activity in the phenolic fraction.
The results obtained during this PhD thesis have resulted in nine publications in international journals such as Electrophoresis, Journal of Chromatography, and Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Further Information and Source:
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Rocío García-Villalba, Alegría Carrasco-Pancorbo, Cristina
Oliveras-Ferraros, Alejandro Vázquez-Martín, Javier A. Menéndez,
Antonio Segura-Carretero, and Alberto Fernández-Gutiérrez: Characterization and quantification of phenolic compounds of
extra-virgin olive oils with anticancer properties by a rapid and
resolutive LC-ESI-TOF MS method.
In: Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, Volume
51, Issue 2, 20 January 2010, Pages 416-429 (published online 17
June 2009).
DOI:
10.1016/j.jpba.2009.06.021
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Shaoping Fu, Antonio Segura-Carretero, David Arrez-Roman, Javier A. Menndez, A. De La Torre and Alberto Fernndez-Gutirrez: Tentative Characterization of Novel Phenolic Compounds in Extra Virgin Olive Oils by Rapid-Resolution Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Mass Spectrometry. In: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry; J. Agric. Food Chem., Article ASAP, Publication Date (Web): November 9, 2009 DOI: 10.1021/jf901590n URL: direct link
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Giovanni Dinelli, Antonio Segura Carretero, Raffaella Di Silvestro,
Ilaria Marotti, Shaoping Fu, c, Stefano Benedettelli, Lisetta
Ghiselli and Alberto Fernández Gutiérrez: Determination of phenolic compounds in modern and old varieties
of durum wheat using liquid chromatography coupled with
time-of-flight mass spectrometry.
In: Journal of Chromatography A, Volume 1216, Issue 43, 23
October 2009, Pages 7229-7240.
DOI:
10.1016/j.chroma.2009.08.041
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Alegría Carrasco-Pancorbo, Ana María Gómez-Caravaca, Antonio Segura-Carretero,
Lorenzo Cerretani, Alessandra Bendini, Alberto Fernández-Gutiérrez: Use of capillary electrophoresis with UV detection to compare the
phenolic profiles of extra-virgin olive oils belonging to Spanish
and Italian PDOs and their relation to sensorial properties.
In: Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, Volume 89
Issue 12, Pages 2144 - 2155, published online: 30 Jul 2009
DOI
10.1002/jsfa.3707
URL:
direct link
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Ana M Gómez-Caravaca, Vito Verardo, Antonio Segura-Carretero, Maria
Fiorenza Caboni and Alberto Fernández-Gutiérrez: Development of a rapid method to determine phenolic and other
polar compounds in walnut by capillary electrophoresis–electrospray
ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.
In: Journal of Chromatography A, Volume 1209, Issues 1-2, 31
October 2008, Pages 238-245.
DOI
10.1016/j.chroma.2008.08.117
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Alessandra Bendini, Lorenzo Cerretani, Alegria Carrasco-Pancorbo,
Ana M. Gómez-Caravaca, Antonio Segura-Carretero, Alberto
Fernández-Gutiérrez and Giovanni Lercker: Phenolic Molecules in Virgin Olive Oils: a Survey of Their
Sensory Properties, Health Effects, Antioxidant Activity and
Analytical Methods. An Overview of the Last Decade.
In: Molecules 2007, 12(8), 1679-1719.
DOI:
10.3390/12081679
URL:
direct link
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Alegría Carrasco-Pancorbo, Lorenzo Cerretani, Alessandra Bendini,
Antonio Segura-Carretero, Giovanni Lercker, and Alberto
Fernández-Gutiérrez Evaluation of the Influence of Thermal Oxidation on the Phenolic
Composition and on the Antioxidant Activity of Extra-Virgin Olive
Oils.
In: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, J. Agric.
Food Chem., 2007, 55 (12), pp 4771–4780.
DOI:
10.1021/jf070186m
URL:
direct link
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Alegría Carrasco-Pancorbo, David Arráez-Román, Dr. Antonio Segura-Carretero,
Alberto Fernández-Gutiérrez: Capillary electrophoresis-electrospray ionization-mass
spectrometry method to determine the phenolic fraction of
extra-virgin olive oil.
In: Electrophoresis, Volume 27 Issue 11, Pages 2182 - 2196,
2006 DOI:
10.1002/elps.200500650 URL:
direct link
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Alegria Carrasco-Pancorbo, Ana Maria Gómez-Caravaca, Lorenzo Cerretani, Alessandra Bendini, Antonio Segura-Carretero, and Alberto Fernández-Gutiérrez: Rapid Quantification of the Phenolic Fraction of Spanish Virgin Olive Oils by Capillary Electrophoresis with UV Detection. In: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry; J. Agric. Food Chem., 2006, 54 (21), pp 7984–7991 DOI: 10.1021/jf0617925 URL: direct link
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A. Carrasco-Pancorbo, L. Cerretani, A. Bendini, A. Segura-Carretero, M. Del Carlo, T. Gallina-Toschi, G. Lercker, D. Compagnone, and A. Fernández-Gutiérrez: Evaluation of the Antioxidant Capacity of Individual Phenolic Compounds in Virgin Olive Oil. In: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry; J. Agric. Food Chem., 2005, 53 (23), pp 8918–8925 DOI: 10.1021/jf0515680 URL: direct link
